Several reasons come to mind. The hourly rate is probably too low. The contractor is pricing his jobs at the “going rate”. He is not pricing the job at what he needs to price it at in order to make money. A painter has to charge the rate that he needs to make money not what he thinks someone else is charging. He needs to price the job at his cost plus markup before he can sell it and make a profit.

How does he know his costs? He knows his cost by keeping track in a ledger how long it takes to paint something.

That includes estimating the job, buying paint, setting up the job (moving furniture, drop cloths, spackling or prep).

He should know how much it costs to start each day before anyone even steps out of the truck, there really is a cost before anyone even puts one drop of paint on. A business man knows this. Add in your insurance costs, equipment, vehicle expenses. Did you buy a new ladder this year? Did he buy any brushes? Did he buy any roller covers, or roller cages? Did he buy any thinner? How much time did it take to estimate this job? Did you do any other estimates that you lost? These still took time and cost you money?

Do your painters actually work a full 8 hours each and every day? Do you give breaks? It’s the law you know? If you consider breaks of 10 to 15 minutes in the morning and afternoon each work day, how much time is it each year? It’s 260 days each year times 30 minutes, or 130 hours each year that you are not charging for. Somebody has to pay for those breaks. And that is if you can manage to keep your painters busy 52 weeks a year.

Do you ever need to run to the bank, or pick up paint? Are any of these chores part of the actual painting? What about the time spent driving to the job? All of these things are job costs, and need to be added into your hourly rate. You need to know your total costs. If you is selling by the going rate rather than selling at your costs plus profit, then you might lose money.

Is it difficult to know your costs? No, it is not. Just keep a running total of how many hours, plus yearly costs and divide by how many hours you really work this year. How do you know that? Keep track of the time worked. Then you will know your going rate.

More about estimating paint jobs. Learn how to estimate painting jobs the right way.

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